“The great eventful Present hides the Past; but through the din of its loud life, hints and echoes from the life behind steal in,” as John Greenleaf Whittier said. We started a similar journey back in the history of India to witness how often it has been invaded, humiliated, subjugated and above all, divided. It’s been sixty years to a paradoxical Independence and division, the scars of which have not yet been healed by the flowing tide of time. As destiny would have it, yesterday’s siblings are today the biggest adversaries, one almost desperate to destroy its elder brother whose existence is the very anti-thesis of its own identity; while the elder brother has been a little more considerate, but often has been left with no option than to teach the recalcitrant sibling a lesson or two.

We are essentially talking about India and Pakistan. While the chances of a nuclear holocaust have subsided much, still, the subcontinent is far from becoming a peace haven. And as if the envy of Pakistan hasn’t been enough, it has rather got a major booster from similar antipathy within many sections of Bangladesh. While the chances of much of the subcontinent becoming a hub of radical fundamentalism essentially remains above average, it can only go up as the increasing prosperity of the Indian economy creates more heartburn in the failing states of Bangladesh and Pakistan. And while an inclusive growth strategy for the subcontinent is of prime essence, in the short run, India is left with not much option but to increase its vigil, the reminiscences of 1948, 1965,1971 and 1999 still fresh in mind.

It is more of a certainty that Pakistan’s misanthropic misadventure would increasingly spread its fangs much beyond the paradigm of Kashmir to all over India. And it is a bigger certainty that in the new game, Bangladesh would be the new pawn, making sure that for India, internal security becomes much more of a concern than external threats.

Reaping the benefit of this increasing animosity towards India is China, which has its own compulsion to see much of India burning in a slow yet lethal proxy war. On one hand, while it has otherwise maintained a so called peaceful stance, on the other hand, it has been consistently handing over to Pakistan vital nuclear and missile technology to continue to keep India busy. So the elephant, which has not yet fully awakened from the slumber, finds itself surrounded by adversaries armed with lethal arsenal. Under such circumstances, a proposition to not arm her own self – just for the sake of pleasing the peaceniks – is nothing but self defeating. So a nuclear India has embarked on a new mission to continue with its missile development programmes to makes sure that some of them like Agni-III can reach the heart of China.

Yet the world isn’t that unfair. For every adversary, there are new allies too. India’s bonhomie with Israel and the US has made sure that certain regions where it lacked the right kind of equipment have been taken care of. The increasing bonhomie is vindicated by the American inclination to shower us with an unprecedented and exclusive nuclear deal even when we have not yet signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This is proof enough of the success and efficacy of our pluralistic democracy, But as somebody said it right – The best way to be at peace is to be prepared for war.